submissions
| Motion City Soundtrack – So Long Farewell Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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This seems to be about a girlfriend who has a drug or alcohol addiction that is ruining her life. No matter how supportive he is with her, she keeps on her cycle of getting wasted every night and sleeping through the day. At some point he realizes that his support is doing nothing but slowing her plummet to the bottom, so he decides to leave her. It is obvious that he thinks the world of her, but leaving is the only option left. He hopes that she can pull herself out of her downward spiral, and will be there if she does.
This is a change of pace for Justin as the roles are usually reversed in his songs like in Resolution where his girlfriend is taking care of him after his benders. |
submissions
| Motion City Soundtrack – Disappear Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Just found out Joshua Cain verified via twitter that it is in fact "Shovel through my skin". He also said it's "little fevers wrapped in dedication" |
submissions
| Motion City Soundtrack – Disappear Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I really like this description and given Justin's history with alcohol this fits really well. There's really an image of self loathing in the song with lines like "angry island" "it's isolation" "festering interiors" etc. |
submissions
| Motion City Soundtrack – Disappear Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I've gone back and forth between "shuffle" and "shovel" but if you listen towards the end when the music drops for the chorus, it sounds a lot more like shuffle.
On that note this song is amazing live, as is the other new song "A Lifeless Ordinary" Their show at the Triple Rock was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. Can't wait for January 19th!!! |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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maybe you put the ashes of a loved one in an urn, but not your child whom you "burned for incurring your wrath." I don't think the rake would have wasted time on an urn, or thrown it in the river for that matter
Also, seeing as how he was a baby when he was found, maybe "a cradle of clay" is actually a cradle made out of clay... just a thought |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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William has been spending time with Margaret, and the Queen finds out and isn't happy about it. It seems that she has been scorned by the world of men, and when she finds William as a child, abandoned in a river, she swears to love him as her own, but never submit him to what she sees as a horrible, unloving race. So when William, whose wanted to connect with one of his own kind, begs for just one last night to spend with the first woman he's known and come to love, he says "you owe me life" or, you've kept me to yourself your whole life, and I've never had a chance to really live, you owe me this one chance. So because she really does love him, she allows him this once, but then he'll never again be allowed to mingle with men.
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submissions
| The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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again i have to disagree with William and Isaiah being the same person. Isaiah was old enough to fight back when he was *burned* by the Rake. William was taken out of a cradle as a baby by the queen. Maybe the Rake sees William as Isaiah when he is coming at him, but it doesn't fit that they're one in the same |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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by "isn't explicitly referred to" do you mean not implied in the least bit.
Why would Colin write a love story album with the narration of the most detestable character he's yet created. Nothing in the entire hour of music offers any inkling of the rake showing any feelings for Margaret besides sadistic lust.
The rake is left out of the first half of the album because that whole first part is about love. the second half is all about the abduction/rescue of margaret finishing with william marrying margaret as they allow themselves to drown in annan waters to prevent ever being separated again, since he's promised his life to the queen after this night |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Williams music at the beginning of this song makes think that William makes quick work of the Rake and he's meeting his murdered children's souls in the afterlife.
The wanting comes in waves/reprise then is Williams passionate reuniting with Margaret.
And William is not Isaiah, Isaiah was burned, William was found in the reeds of a river. Also it makes sense that this is the Rake's first act in his new life, so it's fairly recently after killing his children. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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How anyone gets rape out of this song is beyond me...
now this might be a little bit of a stretch, but I believe Margaret is a prostitute, but after making love with William, she refuses to work anymore as she's fallen for him. So now when the 15 maidens lay, only 14 of them are paid, as Margaret heaves a sigh of longing, her hands clasped to her thighs in refusal to sell her body anymore.
This leads into the next song, as she has to leave her bower once her belly starts to show.
Also, something is shouted right at the end of this song in transition, can anyone make out what is said? |
submissions
| The Decemberists – Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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There is no doubt, either from this song itself, or the back story of the songs before this that she is indeed pregnant. I'm with jfoxx as far as the alleged rapist goes. There's no reason to suspect rape for a few reasons, she refers to the "shape-shifting beast" as her love, and that "beast's" name is William, who is the love interest of margaret. In the lyrics that come with the CD, william is the one who calls "my own true love, can you hear me love." |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Perfect Crime #2 Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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first off, to say that this song is about JFK is about as logical as saying it has something to do with "bagman's gambit." Just because one or two little things relate, doesn't mean that's what the song's about, you're ignoring the rest of the lyrics.
That being said, this invokes images of something like Oceans 11, where the criminals thought of every possible angle, and at the end, when the agent set up an ambush or some big trap thinking he'll for sure catch them, he finds that even his best plan was a surefire backfire. I like to think the two words spoken on the tap wire are "Got ya" or something simple that lets the agent know not only did he fail, but the criminals knew they were tapped the whole time, insult to injury
I'm yet to hear a decemberists song that i don't see some elaborate movie playing in my head throughout the whole song. True masters of storytelling through song |
submissions
| The Decemberists – Valerie Plame Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Parts of this song remind me so much of Bagman's Gambit. I think it's about a guy who falls hard for a woman that turns out to be a spy. Even though she just uses him, he's still so smitten that no matter what she really is, he'll always remember her as Valerie Plame, the girl he fell in love with. |
submissions
| Regina Spektor – Samson Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The real story of Samson ends like LadyLegba says, except that Samson actually regains his strength in order to break the columns and destroy the temple that is the pride and joy of his captors, killing them and himself in one last action.
In Regina's version, it seems because Samson and Delilah were actually in love she never turned him into Philistine's, so he never destroyed the temple and their story was never mentioned in the bible. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Bagman's Gambit Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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First off, why do people try to make every decemberists song with a love interest into a gay love interest. As each of you say, there's no evidence of the two characters being gay, and believe it or not, I think couples have snuck into a bathroom to fool around once or twice before.
Second, I think the guy is considered the bagman, bringing the ransom/payoff money to free his lover, and his gambit is that he gives up everything he has, which he considers a small sacrifice compared to her being safe.
It seems that he knew she was a spy the whole time, and possibly wanted her to get out of the business, as she would tell him "they'll never catch me" to comfort him and that they would both escape from their lives and run off together. When she is caught, he lays in bed longing to hear those words. When they meet at the embassy, it's those words that finally "still" his heart.
Another reason to think they were truly in love and that she wasn't using him, is that she apparently was beaten and interrogated by the Americans, but still didn't give them his name.
Just the fact that a 7 minute song can invoke such a deep story and paint such vivid pictures shows just how talented a writer Colin is. Simply amazing! |
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